Connectivity evaluations of Indian Railways zones with superfast express (SE) trains

A high percentage of rail ridership in India is facilitated by the superfast express (SE) trains that operate across and within the 17 zones of the Indian Railways. While large cities with SE train stations in zones have some form of first/last-mile transport connectivity and considered safe to access during nighttime or early wee hours, several other stations do not have this privilege. Therefore, considering the 9 pm – 7 am period as not so friendly hours of travel, and the 7 am – 9 pm period as the desired hours of travel, analysis shows that the inequalities in centrality and accessibility exist between the zones more than between the stations within a zone for these two periods. Further, it was found that the two zones of the Northern Railway and the Southern Railway have the largest percentage of stations with deterioration in centrality for the 7 am – 9 pm period compared to the 24-hour period. If evaluated for accessibility, there were five zones of the South Western Railway, Southern Railway, East Coast Railway, South Eastern Railway, and Northern Railway that would experience deterioration in accessibility for the same desired hours of travel. It was also found that the investment made by the Indian Railways across the 17 zones between 2016 - 2020 resulted in positively impacting the total employment growth in the zones, and it was significant. The mean accessibility of stations in a zone, served by SE trains, had a significant positive impact on the zonal job opportunities during the 7 am – 9 pm period. The mean accessibility for the 9 pm – 7 am period showed a significant negative impact on job opportunities. These findings suggest that the Indian Railways should continue investing and improving zonal accessibility with new SE trains, particularly during the 7 am – 9 pm period, to spur economic growth in the zones. In addition, such investments with new SE trains should be appropriately planned to reduce disparity among zones.